In the area of foreign aid the gap between policy
practitioners and the public is more subtle than in
the areas discussed in previous chapters. The dominant view among policy
practitioners is that the public dislikes foreign aid in principle because of
parochial and isolationist attitudes. Polls do reveal that the public has reservations about the U.S. foreign aid program. However, this is primarily
because of the attitude (based on extreme misperceptions) that the United
States spends too much on foreign aid and a negative view of the performance of U.S. aid programs. Support for foreign aid in principle, however,
is quite strong, and only a very small percentage want to eliminate foreign
aid. Also, when misperceptions about the amount spent on foreign aid are
corrected, there is strong support for the current level of U.S. foreign aid
spending.

Policy Practitioners' Perceptions of Public Attitudes

Overall, our respondents perceived Americans as quite negative about
foreign aid. Though a handful said that the public is basically supportive,
nine-tenths described the public as having a negative attitude. By far the
dominant view, held by more than two-thirds of the sample, was that the

Print this page

While we understand printed pages are helpful to our users, this limitation is necessary
to help protect our publishers' copyrighted material and prevent its unlawful distribution.
We are sorry for any inconvenience.